Whitman, as Printed

‹ Leaves of Grass, 1855

The lines with “they”

they 231 Back to T

  1. p. iii, line 56[…] sympathy—their susceptibility to a slight—the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to […]
  2. p. iii, line 63[…] President's taking off his hat to them not they to him—these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the […]
  3. p. iv, line 14[…] and beautiful masculine Hudson, do not embouchure where they spend themselves more than they embouchure into him. The blue […]
  4. p. iv, line 15[…] not embouchure where they spend themselves more than they embouchure into him. The blue breadth over the inland sea […]
  5. p. v, line 31[…] it pervades the common people and preserves them . . . they never give up believing and expecting and trusting. There is […]
  6. p. v, line 56[…] good as he, only he sees it and they do not. He is not one of the chorus . . . . he […]
  7. p. v, line 79[…] dignity which always attach to dumb real objects . . . . they expect him to indicate the path between reality and their […]
  8. p. v, line 90[…] a residence of the poetic in outdoor people. They can never be assisted by poets to perceive . . . some may […]
  9. p. v, line 91[…] assisted by poets to perceive . . . some may but they never can. The poetic quality is not marshalled in rhyme […]
  10. p. vi, line 95[…] the pinnacles that no man can tell what they are for or what is beyond . . . . he glows a moment […]
  11. p. vi, line 109[…] greatest poet has lain close betwixt both and they are vital in his style and thoughts […]
  12. p. vii, line 72[…] for generosity and affection and for encouraging competitors . . They shall be kosmos . . without monopoly or secresy . . glad to pass […]
  13. p. vii, line 74[…] any one . . hungry for equals night and day. They shall not be careful of riches and privilege . . . . they shall […]
  14. p. vii, line 75[…] shall not be careful of riches and privilege . . . . they shall be riches and privilege . . . . they shall perceive who the […]
  15. p. vii, line 76[…] and privilege . . . . they shall be riches and privilege . . . . they shall perceive who the most affluent man is. The most […]
  16. p. vii, line 97[…] mathematician historian and lexicographer are not poets, but they are the lawgivers of poets and their construction underlies the […]
  17. p. vii, line 100[…] poem. No matter what rises or is uttered they sent the seed of the conception of it . . . of them […]
  18. p. vii, line 117[…] therefore calm. The innocence and nakedness are resumed . . . they are neither modest nor immodest. The whole theory of the […]
  19. p. viii, line 3[…] or shall happen, the vital laws enclose all . . . . they are sufficient for any case and for all cases . . . none […]
  20. p. viii, line 15[…] upon it are simply to be taken as they are, and the investigation of their past and present and […]
  21. p. viii, line 50[…] welcome from the rest more than from poets. They are the voice and exposition of liberty. They out of […]
  22. p. viii, line 51[…] They are the voice and exposition of liberty. They out of ages are worthy the grand idea . . . . to them […]
  23. p. viii, line 53[…] grand idea . . . . to them it is confided and they must sustain it. Nothing has precedence of it and nothing […]
  24. p. viii, line 59[…] the other. Come nigh them awhile and though they neither speak or advise you shall learn the faithful American […]
  25. p. viii, line 76[…] men drop their eyelashes toward the ground when they pass each other . . . . and is liberty gone out of that […]
  26. p. viii, line 109[…] love and natural deference from the people whether they get the offices or no . . . . when it is better to […]
  27. p. ix, line 10[…] and soul and in the pleasure of things they possess the superiority of genuineness over all fiction and romance […]
  28. p. ix, line 11[…] of genuineness over all fiction and romance. As they emit themselves facts are showered over with light . . . . the daylight […]
  29. p. ix, line 26[…] coverings and turmoils and stratagems to first principles. They are of use . . . . they dissolve poverty from its need and riches from its conceit […]
  30. p. ix, line 27[…] and riches from its conceit. You large proprietor they say shall not realize or perceive more than any one […]
  31. p. ix, line 34[…] tongues and subjects and styles, and in whom they enter with ease and take residence and force toward paternity […]
  32. p. x, line 62[…] returned, and that returned in further performances . . . and they returned again. Nor can the push of charity or personal […]
  33. p. x, line 111[…] will inure always to the identities from which they sprung or shall spring . . . Did you guess any of them […]
  34. p. xi, line 10[…] not contemptuous of less ways of prudence if they conform to its ways, puts off nothing, permits no let-up […]
  35. p. xi, line 80[…] live regions previously unattained . . . . thenceforward is no rest . . . . they see the space and ineffable sheen that turn the old […]
  36. p. xi, line 88[…] elder encourages the younger and shows him how . . . they two shall launch off fearlessly together till the new world […]
  37. p. xi, line 93[…] be no more priests. Their work is done. They may wait awhile . . perhaps a generation or two . . dropping off […]
  38. p. xi, line 97[…] their place. A new order shall arise and they shall be the priests of man, and every man shall […]
  39. p. xi, line 103[…] and women and of all events and things. They shall find their inspiration in real objects today, symptoms of […]
  40. p. xi, line 105[…] objects today, symptoms of the past and future . . . . They shall not deign to defend immortality or God or the […]
  41. p. xi, line 108[…] the exquisite beauty and reality of the soul. They shall arise in America and be responded to from the […]
  42. p. xii, line 60[…] the ingenious, the editor, the statesman, the erudite . . they are not unappreciated . . they fall in their place and do […]
  43. p. xii, line 61[…] the statesman, the erudite . . they are not unappreciated . . they fall in their place and do their work. The soul […]
  44. p. 14, line 27Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself.
  45. p. 15, line 4That they turn from gazing after and down the road,
  46. p. 15, line 13They come to me days and nights and go from me again,
  47. p. 15, line 14But they are not the Me myself.
  48. p. 16, line 28And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths for nothing.
  49. p. 17, line 3They are alive and well somewhere;
  50. p. 17, line 16They do not know how immortal, but I know.
  51. p. 18, line 9The souls moving along . . . . are they invisible while the least atom of the stones is visible?
  52. p. 19, line 1Her father and his friends sat near by crosslegged and dumbly smoking . . . . they had moccasins to their feet and large thick blankets hanging from their shoulders;
  53. p. 19, line 30The young men float on their backs, their white bellies swell to the sun . . . . they do not ask who seizes fast to them,
  54. p. 20, line 1They do not know who puffs and declines with pendant and bending arch,
  55. p. 20, line 2They do not think whom they souse with spray.
  56. p. 20, line 6Each has his main-sledge . . . . they are all out . . . . there is a great heat in the fire.
  57. p. 20, line 10They do not hasten, each man hits in his place.
  58. p. 20, line 23They rise together, they slowly circle around.
  59. p. 21, line 5The litter of the grunting sow as they tug at her teats,
  60. p. 21, line 9They scorn the best I can do to relate them.
  61. p. 24, line 14These are the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,
  62. p. 24, line 15If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing or next to nothing,
  63. p. 24, line 16If they do not enclose everything they are next to nothing,
  64. p. 24, line 17If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,
  65. p. 24, line 18If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.
  66. p. 24, line 29I also say it is good to fall . . . . battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
  67. p. 25, line 17Do I astonish more than they?
  68. p. 27, line 2It is a trifle . . . . they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.
  69. p. 28, line 27The facts are useful and real . . . . they are not my dwelling . . . . I enter by them to an area of the dwelling.
  70. p. 31, line 25I hear all sounds as they are tuned to their uses . . . . sounds of the city and sounds out of the city . . . . sounds of the day and night;
  71. p. 32, line 4They go to guard some corpse . . . . the flag-tops are draped with black muslin.
  72. p. 32, line 14It sails me . . . . I dab with bare feet . . . . they are licked by the indolent waves,
  73. p. 32, line 23They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me.
  74. p. 33, line 2They bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me,
  75. p. 33, line 7They have left me helpless to a red marauder,
  76. p. 33, line 8They all come to the headland to witness and assist against me.
  77. p. 33, line 21They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it,
  78. p. 33, line 22They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon,
  79. p. 33, line 32And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,
  80. p. 33, line 33And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific,
  81. p. 34, line 23I think I could turn and live awhile with the animals . . . . they are so placid and self-contained,
  82. p. 34, line 25They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
  83. p. 34, line 26They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
  84. p. 34, line 27They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
  85. p. 34, line 31So they show their relations to me and I accept them;
  86. p. 34, line 32They bring me tokens of myself . . . . they evince them plainly in their possession.
  87. p. 34, line 33I do not know where they got those tokens,
  88. p. 38, line 26They fetch my man's body up dripping and drowned.
  89. p. 39, line 20They taunt my dizzy ears . . . . they beat me violently over the head with their whip-stocks.
  90. p. 39, line 27They have cleared the beams away . . . . they tenderly lift me forth.
  91. p. 40, line 2They show as the dial or move as the hands of me . . . . and I am the clock myself.
  92. p. 40, line 18Retreating they had formed in a hollow square with their baggage for breastworks,
  93. p. 40, line 19Nine hundred lives out of the surrounding enemy's nine times their number was the price they took in advance,
  94. p. 40, line 21They treated for an honorable capitulation, received writing and seal, gave up their arms, and marched back prisoners of war.
  95. p. 40, line 22They were the glory of the race of rangers,
  96. p. 40, line 27The second Sunday morning they were brought out in squads and massacred . . . . it was beautiful early summer,
  97. p. 41, line 21They saw so many strange faces they did not know whom to trust.
  98. p. 42, line 2They all held out bravely during the whole of the action.
  99. p. 42, line 9Toward twelve at night, there in the beams of the moon they surrendered to us.
  100. p. 42, line 31These become mine and me every one, and they are but little,
  101. p. 44, line 3And know that they who have eyes are divine, and the blind and lame are equally divine,
  102. p. 44, line 11They desire he should like them and touch them and speak to them and stay with them.
  103. p. 44, line 14They descend in new forms from the tips of his fingers,
  104. p. 44, line 15They are wafted with the odor of his body or breath . . . . they fly out of the glance of his eyes.
  105. p. 45, line 15Sleep! I and they keep guard all night;
  106. p. 45, line 19I am he bringing help for the sick as they pant on their backs,
  107. p. 45, line 26The most they offer for mankind and eternity less than a spirt of my own seminal wet,
  108. p. 45, line 32Honestly taking them all for what they are worth, and not a cent more,
  109. p. 45, line 33Admitting they were alive and did the work of their day,
  110. p. 46, line 1Admitting they bore mites as for unfledged birds who have now to rise and fly and sing for themselves,
  111. p. 47, line 1Music rolls, but not from the organ . . . . folks are around me, but they are no household of mine.
  112. p. 47, line 13A few idly owning, and they the wheat continually claiming.
  113. p. 47, line 18They who piddle and patter here in collars and tailed coats . . . . I am aware who they are . . . . and that they are not worms or fleas,
  114. p. 48, line 29How they contort rapid as lightning, with spasms and spouts of blood!
  115. p. 49, line 21They pour and they pour and they exhale away.
  116. p. 50, line 1I am sorry for you . . . . they are not murderous or jealous upon me;
  117. p. 50, line 18They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.
  118. p. 51, line 9Wider and wider they spread, expanding and always expanding,
  119. p. 51, line 19They are but parts . . . . any thing is but a part.
  120. p. 53, line 19But roughs and little children better than they.
  121. p. 53, line 27The girl and the wife rest the needle a moment and forget where they are,
  122. p. 53, line 28They and all would resume what I have told them.
  123. p. 54, line 15And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.
  124. p. 60, line 3Or men and women that they might be written of, and songs sung?
  125. p. 60, line 12I do not say they are not grand and good—for they are,
  126. p. 60, line 15We consider the bibles and religions divine . . . . I do not say they are not divine,
  127. p. 60, line 16I say they have all grown out of you and may grow out of you still,
  128. p. 60, line 17It is not they who give the life . . . . it is you who give the life;
  129. p. 60, line 18Leaves are not more shed from the trees or trees from the earth than they are shed out of you.
  130. p. 60, line 27If you were not breathing and walking here where would they all be?
  131. p. 61, line 5It is nearer and farther than they.
  132. p. 65, line 6If the future is nothing they are just as surely nothing.
  133. p. 65, line 21They are palpable as the living are palpable.
  134. p. 66, line 9Slowmoving and black lines creep over the whole earth . . . . they never cease . . . . they are the burial lines,
  135. p. 67, line 4The markets, the government, the workingman's wages . . . . to think what account they are through our nights and days;
  136. p. 67, line 19The domestic joys, the daily housework or business, the building of houses—they are not phantasms . . they have weight and form and location;
  137. p. 67, line 20The farms and profits and crops . . the markets and wages and government . . they also are not phantasms;
  138. p. 68, line 17Northerner goes carried and southerner goes carried . . . . and they on the Atlantic side and they on the Pacific, and they between, and all through the Mississippi country . . . . and all over the earth.
  139. p. 68, line 18The great masters and kosmos are well as they go . . . . the heroes and good-doers are well,
  140. p. 68, line 26The perpetual succession of shallow people are not nothing as they go,
  141. p. 69, line 4For I have dreamed that the law they are under now is enough.
  142. p. 69, line 23Slowly and surely they have passed on to this, and slowly and surely they will yet pass on.
  143. p. 70, line 9How solemn they look there, stretched and still;
  144. p. 70, line 10How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles.
  145. p. 71, line 9The restless sink in their beds . . . . they fitfully sleep.
  146. p. 71, line 19Well do they do their jobs, those journeymen divine,
  147. p. 71, line 20Only from me can they hide nothing and would not if they could;
  148. p. 71, line 21I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet besides,
  149. p. 73, line 11The slapping eddies are spotted with his blood . . . . they bear him away . . . . they roll him and swing him and turn him:
  150. p. 73, line 18I look where the ship helplessly heads end on . . . . I hear the burst as she strikes . . I hear the howls of dismay . . . . they grow fainter and fainter.
  151. p. 75, line 7They warmly welcome him . . . . he is barefoot again . . . . he forgets he is welloff;
  152. p. 75, line 22I swear they are averaged now . . . . one is no better than the other,
  153. p. 75, line 24I swear they are all beautiful,
  154. p. 76, line 10The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite . . . . they unite now.
  155. p. 76, line 11The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,
  156. p. 76, line 12They flow hand in hand over the whole earth from east to west as they lie unclothed;
  157. p. 76, line 15The bare arm of the girl crosses the bare breast of her lover . . . . they press close without lust . . . . his lips press her neck,
  158. p. 76, line 26They pass the invigoration of the night and the chemistry of the night and awake.
  159. p. 77, line 10They will not let me off nor I them till I go with them and respond to them and love them.
  160. p. 77, line 12And whether those who defiled the living were as bad as they who defiled the dead?
  161. p. 79, line 1They and his daughters loved him . . . all who saw him loved him . . . they did not love him by allowance . . . they loved him with personal love;
  162. p. 81, line 2Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for him,
  163. p. 81, line 7Examine these limbs, red black or white . . . . they are very cunning in tendon and nerve;
  164. p. 81, line 8They shall be stript that you may see them.
  165. p. 81, line 14Do you think they are not there because they are not expressed in parlors and lecture-rooms?
  166. p. 82, line 7For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.
  167. p. 83, line 15Its sleepy and wobbling icebergs crunch as they go.
  168. p. 83, line 16This is a face of bitter herbs . . . . this an emetic . . . . they need no label,
  169. p. 83, line 19Its veins down the neck distend . . . . its eyes roll till they show nothing but their whites,
  170. p. 84, line 3I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum,
  171. p. 84, line 4And I knew for my consolation what they knew not;
  172. p. 84, line 19They show their descent from the Master himself.
  173. p. 85, line 22Him they accept . . . . in him lave . . . . in him perceive themselves as amid light,
  174. p. 85, line 23Him they immerse, and he immerses them.
  175. p. 86, line 5The ships in the offing . . . . the perpetual shows and marches on land are for him if they are for any body.
  176. p. 86, line 21One part does not counteract another part . . . . He is the joiner . . he sees how they join.
  177. p. 87, line 15They are not vile any more . . . . they hardly know themselves, they are so grown.
  178. p. 88, line 17And all these things bear fruits . . . . and they are good.
  179. p. 88, line 20Cold and motionless as they seem . . live elsewhere with unslaughter'd vitality.
  180. p. 88, line 21They live in other young men, O kings,
  181. p. 88, line 22They live in brothers, again ready to defy you:
  182. p. 88, line 23They were purified by death . . . . They were taught and exalted.
  183. p. 89, line 22See how well-dressed . . . . see how orderly they conduct themselves.
  184. p. 89, line 29They shall get a grant from the Parliament, and go with a cart to the royal vault,
  185. p. 91, line 4His own parents . . he that had propelled the fatherstuff at night, and fathered him . . and she that conceived him in her womb and birthed him . . . . they gave this child more of themselves than that,
  186. p. 91, line 5They gave him afterward every day . . . . they and of them became part of him.
  187. p. 91, line 14Men and women crowding fast in the streets . . if they are not flashes and specks what are they?
  188. p. 92, line 11They are so beautiful I nudge myself to listen.
  189. p. 93, line 2And that they balance themselves with the sun and stars is equally wonderful.
  190. p. 93, line 19What they felt . . do not we feel it in ourselves?
  191. p. 93, line 20What they wished . . do we not wish the same?
  192. p. 94, line 25Great is the law . . . . Great are the old few landmarks of the law . . . . they are the same in all times and shall not be disturbed.
  193. p. 95, line 7It is well assorted . . . . they have not studied for nothing . . . . the great includes the less,
  194. p. 95, line 8They rule on the highest grounds . . . . they oversee all eras and states and administrations,
  195. p. 95, line 19Sure as the stars return again after they merge in the light, death is great as life.